About The Earl Bishop Heritage Trail Group

The Hervey Heritage Group is an entirely voluntary, not-for-profit collection of individuals who admire and celebrate one of Northern Ireland`s most amusing historic figures – Frederick Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol. However, through the medium of Frederick`s persona, we also entertain the serious and contemporary aim of encouraging visitors to explore a very beautiful part of the world.

It was Frederick who first put The Giant`s Causeway on the map; back in his day, it was hidden at the edge of a barely-known and rarely-visited wilderness. Today, over three-quarters of a million people from all over the world visit the Causeway every year. Unfortunately (for them), the vast majority jump off their tour bus, snap a few ‘selfies’ beside the funny-shaped rocks, then jump back on the bus for another hundred-mile jaunt, completely oblivious to the amazing scenery and majestic ruins that lie close by.

So The Earl Bishop Trail is our invitation to you, the visitor, to step off the bus, but also to step off the beaten track and take a bit more time. Time to enjoy the many treasures waiting to be discovered along Northern Ireland`s north-west coast. Time to relax and soak up a real sense of place. Time to step back in time itself, because from the pre-historic Causeway, through to medieval castles, Georgian follies and mansions, jewel-like churches and breathtaking viewpoints, the Earl Bishop Trail will carry you across many millennia, but all your stopping-points have one thing in common: The Earl Bishop himself.

The Earl Bishop Trail is a labour of love, so rather than list the many individuals who acted as midwives (and whose sole reward is the miracle of birth), instead we would like to thank the following organisations:

This website was designed and produced entirely from scratch, by Foundation Degree students from the Interactive Media Department of the Northern Regional College, based at the Newtownabbey campus. It is a real testimony to their talent, professionalism and hard work, so they deserve our thanks and the college also deserves our thanks for its commitment to the community, and to uncompromising quality in Higher Education.

After many years of describing what we thought was a pretty sensible idea to many official bodies, the organisation that took the most positive action to help us was the University of the Third Age. In the early days, the Foyle and Causeway groups came together to provide shelter, personnel, tea, sandwiches, ideas and encouragement and we thank them for their generosity, foresight and patience.

By providing a grant to the Northern Regional College students, the Arts Council made it possible for them to travel, stay overnight, meet with local businesses, conduct research and take photographs to create the content for the site. The site is a live project and successive cohorts of students will inherit it, continue to populate it and take care of its hosting and functionality. So this represents an investment in the present, but also the future. The Arts Council was keen for the students to include local businesses in the creative field, so if you have such a business and you would like it featured on the site, please get in touch – it`s totally free, and all you have to supply are your contact details and a photograph!

Finally, for their generous financial contributions to the project, which were mainly used to fund a related paper booklet and map, we`d like to thank The Dunmore Community Foundation, The Honourable The Irish Society, The National Trust, ASDA and Edwin May Motors.